AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I blinked for a moment, blinking away tears, thinking of my parents, especially my father and everything he taught me. And it was those thoughts that caused the fury to burn inside me. The roaring rage as it scuttled up my legs, through my belly, like a slithering snake worming its way around my heart as the fire roared inside me.
My eyes met his, and he saw it—what I found—my strength, which was his weakness. His narrowed eyes and smirking mouth had now both widened, showing me the change in force between us. I smirked and raised my leg, turning my foot, pulling it back and smashing my heel at such full force into his knee I heard a crack.
His face was twisted. “Bitch,” he roared.
The grip loosened enough to take a breath, and I was no longer choking, and I could breathe. I raised my foot once more and rammed my heel into his knee again, hearing the wonderful sound of a pop. He roared into the sky, dropped me and lurched backwards for a few rickety steps.
Swallowing hard as I rubbed my throat, but I didn’t take my eyes away from staring at him and he’d not taken his eyes from me either. One eyebrow arched as he sneered. It was only seconds later I knew why he looked so smug. His hand reached down to his ankle, and I heard the undeniable scrape of a blade being pulled from its leather scabbard. A sound I’d heard during plenty of training sessions.
He slowly rose again and flicked his knife. The glint of silver flashed before me as he swished the blade back and forth. He glanced once more at the sky like he was waiting for some divine intervention—he was definitely looking the wrong way.
He let loose a thunderous bellow that shook me to my core but he then stood still for a beat, before lowering his face, his lips rolled into his mouth and slowly they turned up and he smirked at me with bloody eyes.
Shit.
“It’s a shame I’m only here to kill you. I could have had some fun with you,” he sneered, his voice deep and slow. “I never expected you to look so lovely.”
I ignored his threat as I kept my eye on the blade and him, waiting for the shift in the direction it looked as though he would take.
“Who sent you?” I whispered, my throat still sore from the heaviness of his hand which had wrapped so nicely around my neck.
“You already know.”
The Dark King.
He vanished, passed from my sight, a cloud of dark dust lingered where he had stood. But I sensed him. His coldness was palpable against my arms. That and suffering his stinking breath, which was behind me and to my right. A rush of goosebumps chilled my spine and without a thought, I kicked backwards and slid my arm through what seemed like thin air.
It connected to something hard and weighty, and a grunt let loose over the air and on the spur of the moment, I squatted low and kicked my leg out. It connected to him once more.
I spun around but heard a squish in the air and a flash of silver coasted my arm.
“Bastard, this is new,” I hissed, looking at the gash in my leather jacket, before I swiped my hand over my arm, seeing a trickle of blood, but I had no pain. “Show yourself. I want to see your eyes when I kill you.”
He chortled.
Seven inches should be enough.
Knowing where the sound came from. I sideswiped my hand like a sword in his direction, striking him with full bodily force.
He gagged and emerged from his invisible lair as he staggered backwards, holding his throat, and then faltered.
I smiled.
He roared and lunged towards me, closer and closer, until his hulking torso came at me, and the knife flashed and swished in front of him.
I held each arm loosely at the side of my thighs. I touched my thumbs against my middle fingers and I don’t know why, but I fought an impulse to propel them into the air. Somehow I knew I could do that, but today I also knew I didn’t need that kind of help.
My fingers felt like they were sizzling as I held my hands out and moved his action into slow motion. My head dipped low as I stared at him through my eyelashes. He stopped, and it was as though my magic had anchored him to the floor.
I quietly mumbled something I’d never said before—but I also seemed to know by heart.
He dropped to the pavement into a kneeling position, clutching his ears and chanting as his body rocked back and forth. Whatever I’d done had rendered him powerless, but a gut feeling told me I had no time to spare.
“It’s him or you, Aurora,”the mysterious voice said.“Let me see who you really are. Show me your real magic.”
I ignored the insidious voice and hurled myself on the beast’s back, restraining his heavyset neck between my right biceps to the front and dug my nails into his head on the right at the back. I didn’t communicate any longer, but stopped for only one brief beat to think about what I was about to do.
“Show me who you really are, show me your real magic, call your gods,”the voice growled in my head again.
